Dogma

Director: Kevin Smith

Year: 1999

The universe is in full meltdown mode, befitting many who worried about "Y2K" (yes, it was a thing) but Kevin Smith as the chunky hero along with his foul-mouthed, sex-crazed friend Jay are here to save the day. Okay - it's not all about Jay and Silent Bob, but, unfortunately for me, too much of it was. There's a very interesting story here. And, although I'm not enough of a Bible scholar to take him on about the "truthfulness" of his interpretations (that statement alone doesn't work...), I was impressed with how much information rang true to me, as a man raised Catholic. The greatest things are the simplest things. The bits about love, faith and how powerful these seemingly simple things are.

What I didn't care for was how in love with himself and his dialogue Smith is. This is the problem of the Director/Writer auteur, particularly one as relatively young and commercially successful as Smith was at the time. It's important to remember that he was a film festival darling who exploded on the scene with the micro-budgeted "Clerks" in 1994. This was during the heart of the Slacker movement, a time when disenfranchised, smart and angry young artists threw up middle fingers at everything that came with the conventional, button-down 1980's and were celebrated for it. Ugly became pretty.

If Smith had cut down about 75 percent of his and Jay's role, the movie would have played an awful lot closer to the message and, I'll argue, would have been funnier, too, since the talents of Alan Rickman and Chris Rock, in particular, would have been elevated. Matt Damon flashes some of what he would soon become in this film, with "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Bourne Identity" soon to follow. Ben Affleck, at this point, hadn't yet grown into the performer he would become in "The Town" and "Argo" -- and he pales in comparison to his longtime friend (the on-screen breakup was good for both of them).

Smith is a Director who has made a career off of making exactly the films he wants to see. They are full of themselves, pop-referential, campy and, quite often, funny. My problem as it plays out here (or doesn't) is that he doesn't know when to pull which lever and the audience often pays for his lack of development.